This invention is directed to an electronic timepiece utilizing semiconductor-insulating substrate integrated circuitry, and in particular to utilizing semiconductor-insulating substrate integrated circuit elements in the oscillator circuit and high frequency stages of the divider circuit in an electronic timepiece to accomodate time standards able to oscillate at extremely high frequencies such as a thickness-shear quartz crystal vibrator.
Heretofore, electronic timepieces have been formed with metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors, hereinafter referred to as MOS-FETs, formed on a silicon wafer. Nevertheless, the manner in which such MOS-FETs are fabricated causes a considerable amount of parasitic capacitance to be generated during normal operation of such MOS-FETs. The greater the parasitic capacitance, the greater is the consumption of current required to charge and discharge the parasitic capacitance, such charging and discharging being determinative of the response speed in utilizing such transistors in high frequency operation. Accordingly, such MOS-FETs are less than completely satisfactory when utilized with quartz crystal vibrators capable of providing stable operation at extremely high frequencies, since the MOS-FETs are likely to dissipate excessive power and often are not able to operate at the switching speeds required.